The importance of branding

No matter what course I was in this year – online PR, media relations, introduction to public relations or business – branding was always a topic of discussion. This is because brands are everywhere, they’re inescapable. And the most important thing I’ve learned about brands this year? Without a strong corporate brand and image, you’re company will pretty much become obsolete. This is why the process of branding is such an important step for organizations.

Organizations spend obscene amounts of money doing research for, creating and marketing their company’s branded image. As PR professional, we play a large role in this branding process. We must establish the reputation of the company by making the brand known and respected through various initiatives and tactics.

Even as I write this my desk is littered with brand name items; a Coach purse, a Prada wallet, a BlackBerry cell phone, an Apple Ipod. It seems that everything we own is branded, and that’s likely the reason we’re attracted to it. I mean, who amongst us wouldn’t rather carry a Coach purse then a generic, unrecognized brand. This point just illustrates the importance of correctly branding your product or organization.

With that said, I would like to take this time to establish my own personal brand – ME!

Caitlin is a brand built on creativity, attention to detail and organization. These traits help me to produce high quality work on time and on budget, that often surpass the wants and needs of clients. As a fairly new brand, I am still growing and learning – hoping to expand my knowledge in all sectors before specializing in one particular area. I am unique in the marketplace as I have a keen interest to learn all that I can and a desire to be challenged so that I can put my acquired skill set to use.

Strengths – Creativity, attention to detail, organization, reliable, delivery of quality products, flexible and open minded.

Weaknesses – Lacks a broad knowledge base in industries such as high technology, financial and health care, sometimes takes on too many projects at once, limited design and web based skills.

Opportunities – As a very new brand I have the opportunity to learn many new things as I enter into the field and truly define myself in an sector where I can excel, changing technology allows me to advance and learn quickly.

Threats – Similar new brands that offer the same skill set as I do, lack of job opportunities due to current economic situations, more established brands that have learned to promote themselves better.

So just to recap, a brand is what you stand for. It is how you are perceived in the marketplace. The market forms its opinions of you based on your brand and your related activities. It is ultimately how you are perceived and is what makes your company relevant.

From the largest corporations to a freelancing individual, establishing a strong and recognizable brand is a must in order to achieve success in our competitive marketplace.

Ghost-Blogging: Ethical or not?

In the on-line world, which since its beginnings, has been hailed as an anonymous platform for individuals wishing to express their opinions, how important is transparency?

For some, transparency is a non-issue, something they would never consider. To these individuals being anonymous allows them to voice opinions they may not be brave enough to attach their names too, explore issues they otherwise may be too embarrassed too, or act on behalf of someone else. These are the supporters of Ghost Blogging.

While there are many, many Ghost Bloggers – individuals writing anonymously, people posing as others, individuals or groups writing on behalf of corporations – there are an equal number of people who believe that transparency is a non-negotiable, an absolute must, when it comes to blogging. It all comes down to what the individual believes to be ETHICAL.

Michael O'Connor Clarke, a presenter at this year’s Talk is Cheap 2.0 hosted by the Corporate Communications and Public Relations department at Centennial College, is a firm believer in transparency – especially in the world of public relations. He believes ghost blogging to be, “inauthentic, opaque, fake, duplicitous (<-- insert favourite synonym here). It's everything that this splendid authentic, transparent, open, honest social media stuff is NOT supposed to be about”. But wait. Public Relations professionals make a living writing speeches for others to deliver, creating quotes to fit into newspaper articles and drafting letters, news releases, memos, etc. to be released on behalf of someone else. This causes Clarke to openly wonder, “How is what we [public relations practitioners] get paid to do every day any less dodgy than ghost blogging?”

One answer is that clients take ownership of what we write as PR professionals. They adopt the words and consider them their own, they support and agree with what is being said. Another is that most individuals realize that the speeches delivered by politicians or the words posted on your company’s website by the CEO are usually, if not always, a collaborative work of the politician or CEO and a group of others.

In my opinion, Clarke is right. Transparency is key to starting open, honest conversations – whether they are face to face, or online. As a PR professional, I accept that what I write may not always have my name attached to it, that my opinions may be viewed as someone else’s – but this is part of the job. Online, I believe it is always important to tell your audience who you are, where you’re coming from and what lead you to the position you’re in now. It’s the only way to really facilitate an honest form of communication.

RRRRRRoling up the social media rim

I have a friend whose mom gets up every morning, quietly sneaks out to the car still in her pajamas, drives to Tim Hortons and orders four extra large coffees. “Awww, how nice,” you’re thinking. “This woman gets up early while the rest of her family is still snug in their beds just to get them their morning coffee.” WRONG. All four of those extra large coffees are for her, and she reheats them throughout the day as she works from home. Don’t even bother mentioning that you can buy a can of grounds and brew your own; apparently it’s just not the same.

Personally, I have never considered myself to be a Tim Hortons addict. However, after a few days of being out of the country the undeniable craving for a large Tim Hortons tea with two milks and one sweetener, with the tea bag left in of course, kicks in - And nothing, not even a latte from the most gourmet coffee bistro, can satisfying my craving. This is why Tim Hortons pit stops have become a tradition for the Brookbanks family on the way home for the airport.

It is the high volume of stories just like these that filtered in through customer service reps and franchisees that prompted Tim Hortons to make its first foray into social media. “Because we’ve been receiving letters and stories for a number of years now, it made sense for us to create a place on the web...the website has become an online repository for these stories,” says Rachel Douglas, director of public affairs for Tim Hortons.

The website, everycup.ca, allows customers to share their Tim Hortons stories. From a special moment to a daily ritual, Tim Hortons says that “every cup tells a story.” For the corporation, an online community like the one they have created here enables them to highlight the connection it has its truly Canadian customers.

The site, which was developed by Henderson Bas – Canada’s most awarded interactive agency - allows Tim Horton aficionados to share their stories with other dedicated coffee lovers, even uploading videos and pictures. Want to see what other people in your area think of Tim’s? Not a problem. This site has made searching for stories easy as you can browse through posted stories by topic (the larger the word the more stories related to that topic), geography, most viewed or most recent categories.

“Warm and inviting this site truly feels like a community and really encourages you to share your feelings about Tim Hortons,” said Dawna Henderson, President & CEO of Henderson Bas. “Throw in the latest and greatest in social media, and you get the perfect place for people to share their Tim Hortons experiences.”

To help this community continue to grow, the foundation of the site features many elements of popular social media. Community members can rate and comment on these stories as well as share their stories on Facebook with direct posting capabilities and send them to a friend by email or even make the content the wallpaper image on their desktop. Speaking of Facebook, the Tim Hortons page had 147,695 fans at last check, and has begun to look a lot like everycup.ca (in a much simpler form) with fans posting their thoughts, likes and stories about the coffee purveyor online.

As Brenna Flynn points out in her entry, Tim Hortons rolls up the social media rim, on the blog, www.causeacommotion.com , “These branded social sites are useful tools for marketers because they can garner great, honest feedback from their consumers. However, it’s at least as important to monitor and measure the conversations taking place away from branded communities. And time will tell what the company’s tolerance is for negative stories or comments.”

So what do I think about Tim Horton’s first step into the world of social media? I think its genius! Everycup.ca is a great website – easy to use, welcoming, interactive – that allows dedicated Tim Hortons fans to share their stories with others that will appreciate them. By building this online community the company is creating a space that will generate more conversation about its product then already exists. You could potentially spending hours getting lost in the sea of stories, photos and videos and come out feeling even more connected to your fellow Tim’s drinking Canadians. Although it hasn’t been determined how long the site will be up for, I see it having some definitely longevity as every day people are creating new memories featuring double doubles and Boston crème doughnuts and new customers are introduced to their products.

So I say, congratulations Tim Hortons! You've truly made a stellar début onto the social media scene.

Yet another way technology has made our lives easier

As with most social media concepts, social bookmarking tools were completely foreign to me when I first began my journey through public relations. I suppose I was a subscriber to what may now be called the ‘old school’ methods of monitoring my favourite sites (admittedly mostly gossip blogs and music sites) – whenever I got a chance I would diligently go from one site to another looking for new postings and updates. What could be simpler than that? All I had to do was type the web address into my browser and hit enter. But with most things in the social media world I quickly learned that I was mistaken.

Enter Delicious. I first learned about Delicious during an Online PR class early in the semester when I registered for it as part of an assignment. Now, I will be the first to admit that I don’t use my Delicious account to its full potential, (I have only bookmarked a very limited amount of personal interest sites), but even a limited user such as myself can see the abundant number of ways social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Digg could help corporations monitor their brands.

Surprise, surprise I am not the only one who has come to this conclusion. The use of social media monitoring tools are growing by leaps and bounds every day as more and more large organizations are beginning to realize the benefits of their use.

“In addition to enormous reach (Forrester Research reports nearly half of U.S. online adults now use them), social media offer a treasure trove of information—information that can be mined using monitoring and analysis technologies to uncover insights about things like customer satisfaction with a company’s direct marketing tactics, campaign performance and the viral spread of marketing messages” writes Amy Syracuse for www.btobonline.com . All of which are very important in this competitive economy. Companies need to stay one step ahead of their competition and how better to do that then by listening to what the consumer really wants? This is what social media allows you to do, and luckily there are dozens of sites already in existence with new ones popping up every day.

Here are just a few that I found very interesting:

Facebook Lexicon – Every knows about the power of Facebook, messages are constantly being delivered here and people make decisions based on the information they gather while perusing various pages. With Facebook Lexicon you can search any keyword and instantly see how often it is discussed on Facebook user’s walls.

BoardReader – is another great site that companies should add to their list of social media monitoring tools. BoardReader allows you to monitor forum posts, topics and even forum names for when a new forum starts to specifically discuss your organization.

BackType – Ideal for reputation monitoring because it allows you to search comments that mention your brand, but if also lets you search comments left by a particular person. So BackType will alert you whenever that pesky “Laura846” who constantly bashes your organization leaves a new comment.

For a list of more great social media monitoring tools check out this article by Andy Beal on www.marketingpilgrim.com .

So although I haven’t been using my Delicious account to its full potential, I do believe that companies and organizations should be actively using social media monitoring sites. How else would they be able to collect so much valuable customer and consumer feedback without breaking a sweat? I have to agree with Amy Syracuse when she writes, “They might not be direct response vehicles, but [companies] should ignore social media and the user-generated content they contain at their own peril.”

My very first podcast

One of my courses second semester is called Online PR. Here we learn all about the online aspects of public relations - how it helps, how it hinders and how it is constantly changing the way we operate as PR professionals.

One assignment for this course was to create a podcast, something that was completely foreign to me not so long ago. Along with my fabulous team - Kurt Mungal, Joanna Nicholson and Melissa Waggoner - we ventured to Canadian Newswire (CNW) to interview Parker Mason, a social media guru in the eyes of many. Parker provided us with some great insights into the world of social media, its effects on public relations, the way we are all transforming due to it and some must see blogs for the social media savvy.

So sit back, relax and enjoy my first ever podcast attempt!

Social Media and Public Relations: A match made in heaven

When I first began studying Corporate Communications and Public Relations at Centennial College I was a complete social media virgin. This is embarrassing to admit, but quite honestly, I don’t think I had ever even heard the term used. Of course I had my Facebook account, but I simply looked at that as a way to keep in touch with friends and creep on unsuspecting people’s photos to see what they had done the previous weekend.

I think back to that time oh so long ago (not even seven months ago) and I wonder how I could have been so blind and clueless.

When I began studying PR my world became completely saturated with social media. Twitter, blogs, RSS feeds, delicious accounts; I felt like I was living my entire life online. Social media became an integral part of my PR life. I was hooked.

However, not everyone believes that PR and social media belong together. There is a ongoing debate about whether social media belongs in the hands of PR professionals. To this, I say YES!

The reason is simple. And since someone already said it better then I could have first, I’ll quote him. In his blog, Social Media Explorer, Jason Falls states that social media belongs in the hands of PR people because, “Social media is a method of communications. Social media tools facilitate these communications. To be effective in social media, whether as a marketer or just an ordinary participant, you must, first and foremost, communicate well”.

While many larger organizations are finally realizing the value of social media when it comes to communicating with customers and consumers on a whole new level, often they have no idea which department within the organization should handle the responsibility of creating and maintaining social media sites. To this Falls say, “Yes, social media tools are mostly driven by technology. But they are driven by technology to deliver a message or messages. You don’t trust your IT department to layout your print ad. Why would you trust them to run your blog?”

Social media is used mainly to COMMUNICATE with consumers. To engage them in conversation in ways that we couldn’t before. It boggles my mind to think that organizations would consider anyone other then PR professionals to carry out this important task – after all, that’s what were here for.

From my experiences with social media, it seems that it is almost primarily a domain for PR practitioners. Take twitter for instance, all of the individuals I follow, minus the few ghostwriters posing as celebs, come from the PR world. While other professions and individuals are rapidly jumping on the twitter band wagon, I believe it was PR professionals who first welcome twitter with open arms and made it a part of their daily, and in some O.C.T.D (obsessive compulsive twitter disorder) cases, a part of their hourly lives.

In my final attempt to prove that social media truly does belong in the hands of PR practitioners, I once again use Jason Fall’s wise words to make my case. He write, “Assuming we can trim away the corporate speak and manage transparent communications efforts in years to come, public relations representatives are the least likely to sell and most capable of speaking as humans to humans, rather than up-selling hucksters to “consumers.””

And after all, isn’t that one of the things that social media is all about? Creating communities where people are free to communicate, share opinions or join discussions in a setting free from blatant consumer pressures?

Volunteering: the PR student's backstage pass

We all know that the most coveted item at a concert is the backstage pass. It allows you an all-access look into the world of music. You get to hang with the musicians you idolize, see the instruments they rock-out on up close, help yourself to the tasty treats and unlimited drinks, and maybe even get an autograph or two.

For PR students, volunteering at an event is just as exciting. Ok, maybe I over exaggerate a little, but it is a pretty close second. We get to meet industry bigwigs whose messages we follow on Twitter, learn tips and tricks about what it takes to make an event successful, help ourselves to a volunteer t-shirt and some material for our portfolios, and maybe even get a business card or two.

I have had three of these ‘backstage passes’. And yes, they are just about as difficult to come by as the ones for concerts. There are applications to fill out, resumes to be reviewed and contracts to be signed. Much like the lucky few who get to go backstage and rub elbows with rock gods, the role of an event volunteer is highly desired.

My first volunteer opportunity came in the form of Talk is Cheap 2.0, Centennial College’s 2nd unconfrenece exploring trends in social media. After the success of the first Talk is Cheap, it was no surprise that Toronto PR icons sat on discussion panels and nearly 200 people were in attendance.

I was a member of the team responsible for the most important part of the night by far – the food. I know I’m not the only one who considers food the highlight of any evening… Anywho, it seemed simple enough at first, but I quickly learned there was a lot to it. We had to order sandwiches from the caterer, research the cheapest places to buy 200 apples, treats and drinks (and then locate coolers to keep them all cold), travel to unknown areas of Mississauga to find the perfect “Centennial College Green” bags and ribbons to put it all in, organize the hospitality room in a visually appealing manner AND offer sandwich recommendations to eager attendees. Not to mention the 100 other tiny, tedious, but equally important tasks that also came with the job. WHEW, what a night. In the end it was all worth it. The compliments we received from the Talk is Cheap organizers and attendees were great; we felt we truly had done a fabulous job. But the real reward was the experience. I learned to meet deadlines UNDER budget, work quickly and efficiently with a team, the inevitability of last minute tasks and to always choose the chicken salad.

Recently, I volunteered at the 6th annual BizBash event style expo here in Toronto at the Direct Energy Centre. For event professionals by event professionals, this expo is designed to share the latest trends in décor, design, strategy, catering and much more. Featuring more then 100 exhibitors and eight educational conferences on key topics by industry leaders, this expo is otherwise known as Mecca for event planners. I learned a lot about organization and the complexities of organizing such a huge event. But I must admit that my favourite part throughout the day was having time to visit booths, explore the newest trends, take notes and network. This was a fabulous event and I will definitely be in attendance again next year.

Volunteering for CANFund’s (Canadian Athletes Now) “See you in Vancouver” countdown event was very much like having a backstage pass to a concert. But instead of famous rock stars there were famous Canadian Olympic athletes, instead of gold records there were gold medals. This was by far the most glamorous event I have volunteered for as of yet, and I loved every minute of it. Although I was only working coat check (no coats were lost during the course of the evening), I got to see how fabulous and decadent events for registered charities could be. It was inspiring and I hope to one day plan events of the same caliber.

Although the kind of ‘backstage passes’ I’ve had during my PR journey haven’t introduced me to any rock stars or gotten me into any wild after parties, the hands on experience and learning opportunities they provide are invaluable. And really, what more can a PR student ask for?